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new puppy and cats

i will be getting my pup in a couple of weeks from now and as i have 4 house cats, do i need to keep my pup away from the cats until she has all her vaccinations?. i have a big cage all ready for her arrival, and do i also need to keep her in it at all times or would she be allowed to walk around the house even if the cats are kept away from her?

You don't need to keep her away from the cats (unless she's terrorizing them! ). As far as I''m aware, there's nothing she could catch from your cats. Are the cats indoors only or do they go out? I suppose there's the possibility they could bring something in from outside - but there's the same risk when you come in, too...
I wouldn't worry about it.

Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.
--Roger Caras

I also have never heard of anything a dog can get from a cat, especially indoor cats.
A word of advice, though. Put the litter box somewhere the dog can't get at it. I can tell you from past experience that some dogs consider the litter box as the place the cat hides treats icon_yuk

You will want to proceed cautiously just to do introductions safely and so on. Not only can cats look like fuzzy toys to chase, but cavaliers have large eyes that can be very vulnerable (I know two that have lost eyes due to cats and one is Maxx, on this board! icon_yikes ).

Also you will need to get covered litter boxes and find a way to make them inaccessible to your cavalier. As Bruce says most dogs love to eat cat poop ("Kitty Roca"). I doubt this will be any risk to an unvaxxed dog but for many reasons it is a good idea not to even let your new pup get a literal taste for this.

My cavaliers live happily with four cats and at times, various foster cats and kittens, as you can see from the pic in the link above. I keep all my cats nails clipped so there is less likelihood of a dog getting harmed accidentally. They love kittens!

The main thing you will need to focus on is not to let the pup get the idea that the cats are for chasing. Also you need to recognise the cats will probably be put under stress by a new addition so will need lots of your time and space to to retreat to, etc. Just keep an eye on them while they adjust!

thankyou all for your advice its so helpful,i will definitely slowly introduce the cats to jasmine over time,ibet she will love them to death but the cats will be wondering what on earth i have brought home to live with them icon_yikes icon_yikes

Oh yes Cleopatra, please be really careful with the cats. Maxx used to love cats and would play with the cats next door. Then we moved house and one morning we let him out the garden for a wee and this cat came from nowhere. It was on his back with its claws in his eyes icon_yikes .

It damaged his one eyelid but the other eye was in a right mess and we had to take him for treatment for months before we knew whether he could see out of it or not.

I have never been so scared in my whole life as when he was attacked. There was hubby out the garden with a broom trying to disentangle the cat and me trying to lever its claws away from my baby.

Hubby was on the phone to the Vets whilst trying to swab Maxx's eyes and I ran upstairs and just pulled on a pair of jeans and a jumper - no underwear or anything. I have never driven so fast in all my life as I did to get him to the vets.

He is extremely lucky to have even kept his eye, let alone see out of it but if you look at his face, the damaged eye has brown pigment in the white part now and you can see scarring. the eye surgeon was fantastic though. Maxx is now petrified of cats and I freely admit that I no longer like them as much as I once did.

I'm sure people think he's a bit strange for a dog as if we encounter a cat whilst out for a walk, he runs and hides behind my legs bless him.

i am sure it was a really distressing time for you and poor maxx,it just shows how quickly these things can happen, and i am so glad he is ok now, god that sounds like such a nasty vicious cat, but they are not all like that i have my cats trained so that they are as tame and loving as possible, they are like little furry people and i know that they would probably take a swipe at something strange but they would never attack or claw anything, they even live in harmony with my 2 birds.
but of course its common sense to supervise when introducing new pets to eachother, and i will be very careful, because i want my little zoo to live happily together and i dont want to see any bloodshed icon_yikes .... and i am not surprised that poor little maxx is scared of cats now, that poor dog must of been scared beyond belief.... lots of love to u and ur babyxo

Thanks Cleopatra. I'm not for one minute saying that your cats would go for a puppy but it's natural for a puppy to chase & a cat to swipe out - and Cavaliers eyes are so appealing! Just be careful until you know for sure that they are going to get on.

Look at how Karlin's cats get on with Jaspar and Leo - they all curl up together, it's lovely

yep its so cute how they get on, theres nothing as cute as seeing pics of cats/dogs sleeping together..
i just cant wait till jasmine arrives, cause i know that our lives will never be the same again....theres nothing quite like coming in through the door after a bad day at work, and having pets come to greet you with hugs and kisses, its definitely the best free medicine there is... and as i speak, one of my cats called pepsi is skidding up and down the wood floor in the landing, taking one of her mad fits...shes a scream andwhen she starts to purr,its so loud and then she goes out of tune and then starts to whistle really loudly......life would be so boring without our pets, and i dont know how on earth people could be without them.